“–and that’s it for today’s mystery solving stream! Thanks for coming, everyone! I’ll see you tomorrow, where we hopefully finish off this dungeon!”

I grinned at John, masking my still-present anxiety.

Hey, I was a Vcuber for a reason. Getting out in front of the camera personally just wasn’t…

Anyway!

I covered John’s view with my hand while saying, “See you, and don’t be blue!” in my usual goodbye.

I kept my hand on the ‘camera’ for a few more seconds before I let it drop and unsummoned John.

“Well, I can’t actually end the stream, but yeah. Don’t expect anything too exciting for the rest of the day, chat,” I murmured with a lot less enthusiasm than a second ago.

JamieWasTaken3: that switch tho lol

trelipideliberitation: exclusive behind the scenes

I snorted.

“Yeah, sure. A special behind the scenes. A day in the life of an isekai protagonist,” I said with amusement, while giving Trelip a side-eye, briefly wondering if he was secretly the mastermind behind my kidnapping.

Then I quickly shook my head.

Why was I so damn good at coming up with things to stress about?

With that, I went back to the ooze lake with the intention to laze around all day and do nothing like promised. I briefly checked on the tree seeds I’d planted yesterday and to my surprise, they had actually sprouted already and were in the process of rooting themselves in the ground.

I plopped down on the ground next to the first sapling, imagining that it was a giant tree casting a shadow over me. Then I took out Mr. Gargles and let him sit on top of me as I narrowed my eyes and let out a satisfied sigh.

“This is the life, chat. Relaxing here in nature with infinite pizza by my side, not worrying about having to go to work or anything.”

JamieWasTaken3: arent dungeons ur job?

repeaeaeat: I prefer my office job over risking my life in dungeons

I scowled.

“Quiet, you lot! I’m relaxing!” I snapped at them before closing my eyes and going back to relaxing and stoutly ignoring all the anxiety creeping around the corners.

FouxMoux: are you gonna appraise your latest loot?

I hummed.

“Might as well, I guess,” I drawled.

Replace [Flameguard] with [Appsaisal]?

Note: [Flameguard] will not be re-equipable for 24 hours.

Y/N

[Appraisal] equipped.

I popped open an eye to look at Mr. Gargles and shot a quick Appraisal at him.

Ancient turtle plushie

A plushie resembling the legendary turtle. Can be remote-controlled with a small amount of Ether and Intra. The user can see, hear, and smell through it by using a moderate amount of Intra.

I slowly blinked, sat up, and stared at Mr. Gargles.

“...What are you, a drone?” I asked before trying to pour some Ether into it, now that I knew it was safe to do so.

He took my Ether greedily and then jumped off of me onto the grass just like I’d commanded him to do so.

Also–

“Whoa, what the heck?” I blinked several times and looked around but the weird feeling didn’t go away.

It was like I had an extra limb now. But that limb was detached, turtle-shaped, and sitting on the grass right next to me.

“Okaaay, chat. I think I can somehow feel Mr. Gargles as if he was part of my body. That is so weird.”

Right, Intra. Mental stuff. Or perception or whatever. Except this was even weirder than Heat Vision. Like sure, Heat Vision let me see impossible things, but this was just…

“Wait, I didn’t even try the other thing. How do I… use more Intra to see through him?” I murmured while making Mr. Gargles waddle in place… and doing the same with my real body.

Gah, this was confusing!

I tried my best to stop my own body from moving while continuing to move the plushie. It took me several minutes but I eventually succeeded, even if it still felt very strange. My muscles were still all tense and ready to move, but I remained still while my plushie danced.

And then he stopped too and I couldn’t feel him anymore.

I blinked at the abrupt change.

“Oookay, I think he ran out of batteries. Let me recharge you…” I grabbed him, poured some more Ether, and this time tried paying closer attention to what was happening to see whether I could get a feel for Intra the same way I had for Ether, or whether I wouldn’t feel anything just like with Tempor.

To my delight, there was a tiny hint of something when I fed the plushie Ether. A trickle of something else left me and entered the turtle. I hadn’t noticed it before, but it made me just a tiny bit more mentally tired in addition to getting physically tired from expending Ether.

This was it, wasn’t it? Now I just had to figure out how to use it intentionally…

I dropped Mr. Gargles on the ground and once again began walking around with him while keeping myself still. Just as a test, I tried reaching out for any mental switches connected to this, but as expected, there just weren’t any. This wasn’t an innate skill like the key sword, so I needed to use that Intra manually.

I had no idea how to do that, though.

I was already using some Intra to feel where he was though, so now I just had to figure out how I was doing that and go from there.

FouxMoux: finally gonna figure out intra?

“Looks like it? I mean, not like I had a reason to before. Only Appraisal and Heat Vision used Intra and I barely used Heat Vision…” I murmured as I kept making my turtle plushie dance around on the grass while trying to get a better grasp on this weird mental connection we had.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

How exactly did it work? Was I sending him wireless signals or something? Or was that too technical? Should I think of it more in magical terms?

Hmm…

If Ether was this orange smokey energy thing, and Tempor was a glitchy purple mass, what would Intra be?

Also, what the heck even were those three in the first place? Like, fundamentally speaking? Were they a form of matter? Were they some kind of exotic energy? What would I see if I looked at them under a microscope? Were they part of the system or natural occurrences that the system simply took advantage of?

…I was getting too scientific again, wasn’t I?

“I feel like Intra is… again, very different from Ether. Just like Tempor. I mean, makes sense. There’s probably a reason why they are labeled as different things by the system,” I mused as I sat down and started playing patty cake with Mr. Gargles.

It was a bit awkward since I was still getting used to controlling him while simultaneously moving my own body. I felt that I was getting better at it, though.

JamieWasTaken3: lmao

trelipideliberitation: adorable

I kept reactivating Mr. Gargles whenever the connection shut down, but kept getting frustrated because I just couldn’t figure out how to activate those shared senses. I figured that I could try hijacking the connection and tweaking something there, but I still didn’t know how to make Intra do what I wanted.

After what felt like an eternity of making the plushie move around, I finally thought that I had somewhat of a vague feel for it. By then, my head hurt from trying to figure this nonsense out.

I groaned and massaged my forehead.

“Okay, chat. I think I’m on the right path,” I murmured before the connection cut out for what felt like a millionth time. “...Right?”

I frowned and had to blink to refocus again.

“Uh, what was I doing again…? Right, I was gonna… uhh… I was gonna try to tweak that connection… or something.”

I shook my head to clear away the brain fog and fed Mr. Gargles more Ether and Intra to reactivate him.

…

I sat there with my brows furrowed for a few seconds, trying to remember what I was doing.

“Oh… Yeah… Tweak to connection to–”

…

Blink.

…

Blink.

Turtle…

Green…

Plush…

Blink.

Girl…

Blue…

Person…

Blink.

I see turtle…

Turtle saw girl…

I see girl through turtle…

Blink.

Wind blowing…

Leaves rustling…

Grass was green…

Blink.

She have blue hair…

Turtle be green…

Saliva running down her mouth…

Blink.

Hand rub turtle…

Turtle rub hand…

Blink.

Mr. Gargles…

Chat…

Aoto…

Nana…?

Blink.

Who?

Me…

Why…?

Blink.

Experiment…

Intra…?

Mental energy…

Blink.

Oh.

…

Blink.

Oh.

Frown.

Get up.

Grass below.

Blink.

Turtle walking.

Girl walking.

Turtle see girl.

Me.

Turtle see me.

Turtle saw me.

Blink.

Where go?

Where am going?

Dungeon?

Why?

Blink.

Restore Intra.

Dungeon item.

Treasure chest.

Blink.

No. Bad.

Dangerous.

Walk back.

Get back!

Blink.

Tree.

Bark.

Rough texture.

Blink.

Intra?

Intra low.

Why?

Blink.

Turtle see girl.

Still.

Turtle use Intra.

Turn off.

Blink.

…

Blink.

Sit down.

Stare at a tree.

…

Look like trees from Earth.

Brown bark, green leaves.

But inside is orange smoke. Ether.

…

So were they really trees?

How had they survived apocalypse?

Fake trees?

Phoenix trees?

Phoenix was the enemy.

…

“Yur an’ impastah,” I accused the tree through the overwhelming brain fog.

I blinked some more, then frowned, trying to remember what I was doing.

It took a very long time until I could form somewhat coherent thoughts again.

When I could, I also finally remembered the broad strokes of what had happened and couldn’t help but close my eyes, flop down, and massage my forehead.

“...Eh, chat. M’back,” I slurred. “Think I knoh what happnz when I run out of Intrah now…”

Served me right for messing around and experimenting when it was supposed to be my break day.

“...I jus’ go braindead.”

And I was sure to feel embarrassed once this wore off, but for now, I quite literally didn’t have the mental energy to care about it.

I tried reading the chat, but my eyes just slid off the text. I couldn’t even read when out of Intra, apparently.

“C’mon, Gargles, les’ go back,” I murmured as I picked up my plushie and stood up again.

I was a bit wobbly on my legs, but I felt light as a feather. Like I could fly if I tried hard enough.

I didn’t try, though. It probably wouldn’t work anyway.

Once I arrived back at the ooze lake, I lay down, hugged Gargles, and closed my eyes to wait out the damn brain fog.

In the meantime, I counted imaginary sheep.

That was what you were supposed to do when you closed your eyes, right?

But it was hard. I kept forgetting what number I was on or miscounting and had to start all over again three times before I just gave up on that as well.

I opened my eyes in annoyance and tried reading the chat again. This time, I actually caught a few more words in there. Someone was saying to use Appraisal on the swimming sleeves I’d gotten in the chest.

Which was a good idea. I hadn’t had Appraisal equipped back when I’d gotten them, along with Mr. Gargles.

So I just had to–

Wait, no.

Appraisal used Intra.

I didn’t want to turn back into a drooling zombie again.

Oh, speaking of which.

I finally wiped the drool that was all over my neck and chest at this point. Gross.

“I’ll jus… walk ah’round, I guez…”

I put the plushie back into the backpack, and then began walking around the ooze lake. The thing wasn’t all that big so I made the circle around it fairly quickly.

So I did another one. And then another one, then another…

At the end of lap number twelve, I finally felt decently coherent. It was still hard to focus and my head felt a bit light, but overall, I could actually function now.

“Alright, chat. That was–” I frowned. “–actually not that bad in the moment. But thinking back on it is super disturbing.”

I shook my head.

“That was worse than running out of Ether. Like way worse. Like holy crap, if I ever run out of Intra inside a dungeon, I’m probably as good as dead.” I shuddered. “At least when I run out of Ether, I can’t move so I won’t randomly walk into more danger. But with Intra… I was literally about to go back into the dungeon because maybe it had an Intra potion or something. Like what the heck?!”

I sighed.

KaiEbikoOfficial: welcome back Nana

KaiEbikoOfficial: that was really disturbing

trelipideliberitation: the double sight was pretty trippy

“Oh, hey Ebi. Haven’t seen you arrive… Double sight? Wait, did you guys see what I saw through Mr. Gargles?”

JamieWasTaken3: yea it like overlapped and was all weird

“Huh…” I tried to think back on what it felt like, but my memories of the whole incident were quite hazy. “I don’t actually remember what it looked like for me… and no, Jamie, I’m not gonna try again. Heck no!”

JamieWasTaken3: hey I wasn’t saying anything

trelipideliberitation: are you gonna appraise the sleeves tho?

I frowned at chat.

“I guess Appraisal doesn’t use that much Intra… I think, at least. Yeah, sure, let’s appraise them.”

Speaking of which, I still had them on. I’d slept with them, actually. Sure, it looked silly, but every gamer knew that if you got a new item for a gear slot where you didn’t have anything yet, you always equipped it and wore it until you found something better.

I mentally prepared myself to revert to a drooling idiot again, but luckily, it didn’t happen. I did vaguely feel like I’d used something up, but it was miniscule compared to using the plushie.

Once I was fairly sure that I wasn’t going to wander into dungeons or accuse random trees of being imposters again, I looked at the new window.

Floaty inflatable sleeves

Inflatable swimming sleeves. Allow the user to float in any liquid or gas. Reduced effectiveness in gases.

“Huh… That’s not what I expected. Float? I mean, yeah, that’s what they are normally for… But only in water! Are you telling me I can fly with these?”

I hadn’t felt like that before, but then again, I’d never tried flapping my hands or anything.

Also, hadn’t my fall slowed down when I’d fallen into the boss room back there? I’d thought that was the dungeon’s shifty nature, but was it actually thanks to these sleeves?

I narrowed my eyes at a nearby tree that I could maybe climb and test this… But then I very forcefully shook my head.

“You know what? No. I told myself I would relax today. And I already screwed up with one experiment. I don’t fancy breaking my legs trying to fly right now.”

JamieWasTaken3: yea reasonable

trelipideliberitation: it would be really cool if you could tho

KaiEbikoOfficial: if you did that I would scream at you

I snorted and walked back to the first sapling and lay under it once more.

“Well, that’s that. I know I said it before, but now for real! Stream is over! Nothing exciting is gonna happen for the rest of the day!”

Unless a person or even an animal stumbled upon me while I lazed around.

I didn’t really believe it would happen, but I could still hope.